Chewing on the legs of conservatism

Yesterday, I looked at the college website and saw it was closed due to the snowstorm. The roads were clear yesterday afternoon so I knew there would be no driving issues today. But when I got to the college I found it closed (though there was a guard in the entrance shack) because of no power. Yup, when I got home and looked at the college website there was a closed message. That got me wondering where the college server is located.

But that means my classes are short two lectures this semester, a polar vortex being the cause of the first missed day. So a bit of a scramble to decide what gets left out.



I wrote yesterday about the GOP Dorchester Conference in Oregon that approved support for same-sex marriage. It didn't take long for the state GOP to issue a statement to remind everyone that the Dorchester Conference was not an official Republican Party event.

That statement reminds us all that the GOP is the party of freedom (especially from gov't interference), and religious liberty. They are against the redefinition of marriage. I'm not the only one to notice their definition of freedom and their definition of religious liberty are in conflict.



Michelangelo Signorile, writing in Huffington Post, noted a big change at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). In previous years, Maggie Gallagher of the National Organization for Marriage used to walk the halls as religious-right royalty for her work fighting against marriage equality. This year NOM has a small card table in the basement amongst all the other right-wing causes. The reason for the downfall is that those under 25 (half the crowd) aren't interested in what NOM has to say.

That does not mean conservatives are done trying to attack us. As the "religious liberty" battle shows they are merely trying to rework the message to be palatable to the younger crowd.

Signorlie's article commented about Ronald Reagan and his "three legged stool" of conservatism. I had to look that one up, but carefully because I didn't want to link to a conservative site. I found an explanation on Time.com. According to Reagan conservatism has three parts -- economic, defense, and social. Signorile mentioned it by showing a rainbow colored beaver, representing the conservative gay group GOProud, gnawing at the social leg. And that Time article, from a year ago, shows the defense leg losing to the economic leg. Holding the line on taxes and deficit is more important than defense. So, one conservative leg being chewed, the other two in conflict. What fun!



It seems the GOP is now starting to take notice of the poor. Why be so generous? They've noticed that two-thirds of those falling into poverty are white.



The GOP wants to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program to reduce the deficit. Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 (and indexing it to the Consumer Price Index the same way the food stamp program is) will reduce the deficit by $46 billion. Strange that the GOP isn't jumping at this opportunity. Oh, right -- their real goal is to channel more money to the already wealthy.



Another conservative battleground appears to be school lunches, in particular subsidized or lunches. Some states trying to attach as much stigma to those lunches as they can. Others are supplying free lunch to all students to avoid any hint of stigma. Paul Ryan accused progressives of having "a full stomach and an empty soul." Hmm. That seems to describe Wall Street. So conservatives want full stomachs in corporate boardrooms but not in classrooms. That sounds like an "empty soul."



With Sarah Palin spouting off again about how horrible the Affordable Care Act is, Terrence Heath reminds us of what the ACA has been doing for us. Some of what it has done:

* Lowered the number of uninsured Americans.

* Given Americans more freedom by preventing "job lock" or staying in a terrible job simply for the health benefits.

* Reduce medical bankruptcy.

What conservatives can't or won't do:

* Repeal the ACA.

* Replace the ACA. They would rather the poor not be insured.

* Find any ACA horror stories.

Conservatives can't come up with an alternative to the ACA because they don't want either the ACA or an alternative.